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Sunday, June 25, 2017

For Leira Venn, her future is a given
foretold by the oracle of the Albah, the ancient people she was born
to. Which is why she knows from the moment she meets Dr. Julian Ryder
that he is fated to be hers. But nothing else about the prophecy
feels right. For the handsome doctor is shrouded by darkness, and
intimately involved with a woman who seems intent on killing Leira …

Or a death wish?

Sorrow has shadowed Julian Ryder for as
long as he can remember. But from the moment he meets lovely Leira,
his heart is filled with hope for the future—a future that is as
combustible as the powerful attraction between them. For Leira is
marked for death by the very forces who killed his mother. The very
darkness that stole everything he held most dear. Only this time,
Julian is stronger, more in control of his powers than ever. But will
it be enough to save Leira from those who would destroy her?

and it would all be okay, but she
didn’t believe that for a heartbeat. Last

night every time she’d looked at him
she could feel the tracks changing

direction, derailing the future she’d
been expecting.

She shook out her hands. Maybe she was
being overly dramatic, after

all, if it was one of those meant to be
things, why hadn’t she felt more

than a tingle? All she’d gotten—once
she’d gotten over the shock—was

the same tingle she got when seeing any
hot guy.

A smile formed. Julian was hot, and not
just because his magic was

fire. And they had agreed to get together
to talk magic. And he’d offered

to let her read his dead mother’s
diaries, which was probably a great way

to kill any mood.

There’d been no mood in the car, but
there had been an undercurrent

of something. She didn’t know what it
was or how to deal with it, or him.

She’d expected fireworks and…and
something more. She wasn’t sure he’d

felt anything for her except pity,
because she couldn’t control her magic,

and then embarrassment because it was
pretty damn clear that everyone

in the room thought they needed
smooshing together. Saba had promised

not to interfere, but that had been
before, when the vision was still true.

Now it wasn’t. They had met and she
needed to find out what had changed.

She drew in a breath and then exhaled.

In her mind she saw a circle form
around her, in her next breath it became

real. She waited another couple of
heartbeats before visualizing the flame.

If she was lighting a candle for the
oil burner, she didn’t bother with the

ritual, but this was about her future.
She could’ve used a match and not

worried about the magic, but she
refused to use matches and lighters. She

had to be able to do this.

Leira pictured the flame in her mind,
then pushed it out of her. The

candle lit with a spark and a crackle.
She leaned forward and rested her

hands on her chin so she could stare
into its blue center. As she did, the

flame expanded. The blue becoming a
ball three inches in diameter.

Her concentration remained steady. How
many exercises had she done

just on focusing without even using fire?
She’d lost count. She could do

this without burning off her eyebrows
now.

The blue started swirling as though
filled with currents.

Show me the path I am on.

She expected to see the train,
Julian—he had a name now—and herself

giving lectures. Her future still
steady even if she didn’t know how to get

there. She’d met him; all they had to
do was fall in love. When she thought

of him, that feeling was there even
though when she was with him it wasn’t.

Was she getting herself muddled by
constantly checking and imagining?

No, she knew the difference between the
present and the future.

This time Julian didn’t appear in the
flame. The currents grew darker

as though made of thick oily smoke. No,
it was smoke. And flames. Her

future was nothing but smoke and
flames.

No!

She gasped and dropped the circle,
batting the ball of fire away. It

bounced off the wall and into the two
inches of water she’d put in the bath

in case of emergency, where it then
fizzled and went out.

Her heart beat fast. That didn’t make sense.
Just because her initial

meeting with Julian had gone wrong
didn’t mean her whole life was going

to go up in smoke.

Did it?

Fire was her element. What was she
going to do, spontaneously combust?

A nervous laugh slipped past her lips.

She must have projected her own
feelings about the situation. Saba was

better at this than she was. Saba was
better at everything, except school

grades. That had been the one place she
had bested Saba. Leira had worked

hard to be good at something.

What if Saba saw exactly what she had
seen? What did it mean?

It couldn’t be death. There were other
paths. There were always other

paths. She knew that. All that she had
been shown was the path she

was currently on.

Right. She could fix this.
She calmed herself. She just had to

find a new path.

The trouble was, how would she know if
she was on the same path or

changing direction? She couldn’t check
every decision that she made and

sometimes it was the smallest thing
that could create the needed ripple.

Last night had been more than a ripple.

Shona Husk lives in Western Australia
at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination
she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she
discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. With over forty
published stories, ranging from sensual to scorching, she writes
contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi romance.